Wall framing of two by four support members is common in the usual wall or ceiling constructions. In wallboard type of wall and ceiling construction the 2".times.4" support members support and are covered by gypsum wallboard which may be a single layer of gypsum wallboard or of two ply construction consisting of a gypsum backing board surfaced with a layer of gypsum wallboard. Such structure is widely used because it is strong, inexpensive and readily fabricated. Its use in apartment buildings and multi-unit constructions has been more or less restricted because of its lower resistance to the transmission of sound and thereby fails to secure the privacy preferred by occupants of such buildings. Attempts have been made to solve this provlem and one such method utilizes a staggered stud system. In this system the supporting studs are staggered so that they are spaced and arranged in such manner that alternate support members are coplanar while adjacent support members are offset relative to each other. In the two separate opposed rows of support members one row thus supports the wallboard on one side of the wall while the other row of support members support the wallboard on the other side of the wall. Each side of the wall structure is thus permitted to vibrate independently and therefore substantially independent acoustically. One drawback to such construction is that it requires twice the number of support members normally used and thus results in a substantial increase in expense. Furthermore, this system cannot be adapted for practical applications in ceiling structure.
Another prior method comprises a slotted stud system wherein each support member is slotted along its length, except at its end, to divide the support into two portions separated by a space. This permits the two portions to resonate substantially independently and thus be substantially independent acoustically. Wallboard is applied to such slotted supports as in the usual partition or wall system. A disadvantage of this slotted stud system is that care must be exercised when applying the wallboard so that the fasteners are not driven through the space between slotted portions into the opposite portion and thus destroy the ability of the two portions to resonate independently. Also, such slotted construction cannot be utilized in ceiling structures.
Resilient metal runners have also been used heretofore, and in one such system a plurality of resilient runners are attached to the support members in spaced relationship and disposed to receive wallboard attached thereto. Each such runner comprises an elongate member of sheet metal provided with a base flange secured to the support members and a support surface element of sufficient width to provide for attachment of the meeting edges of adjoining wallboard panels by suitable fasteners. A resilient portion at one edge of the support surface interconnects the support surface with the base flange and thus serves to space the support surface and the attached wallboard from the support members. A stop flange element was disposed along the opposite edge of the support surface element and extended at an angle toward the support members and served to support the support surface element when the wallboard was being applied thereto as by the driving of fasteners. A drawback of this type of runner was that the stop flange was not reinforced and was capable of deflecting when the fasteners were being driven to possibly allow the fasteners to enter the support members and thereby destroy the intended effect of the resilient runner.